THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



323 



Time of Seeding. 



The time of seeding will depend much upon the time of the rainy 

 season and the distribution of the snow or rainfall. Whether to seed in 

 the fall or spring must be determined after a study of the local con- 

 ditions. Under a condition where the principal rainfall occurs i'n mid- 

 summer it may not be practicable to" seed in the fall. If there is not suf- 

 ficient moisture at all times between the t'me of seeding and the rainy 

 season, to carry the crop prtuperly, spring seeding must be substituted. It 

 may even be necessary to seed rather late in the spring on occasion when 

 the early spring is unusually dry. But wherever there is sufficient mois- 

 ture to properly carry the crop along or under a condition where a large 

 portion of the total precipitation occurs in the fall, winter and early 

 spring, fall seeding is always preferable. Seeding, of course, must always 

 be done at a time when the crop will make the best use of the available 

 soil moisture. 



Fall seeding assists materially in the retention of ,the soil in place 

 about the plant roots because there is a considerable growth above 

 ground before the usual windy season sets in. Herein lies one of the 

 great values of fall seed'ng. 



Light Seeding. 



The quantity of seed that should be sown per acre diminishes with 

 the decrease in the amount of soil moisture available to the crop. If, for 

 example, five pecks or 75 pounds of wheat is required for seeding in the 

 humid sections, from one and one-half to threes pecks or from 20 to 45 

 pounds, varrying with the precipitations, etc., would be sufficient in the 

 semi-arid belt. The wide difference in the amount of seed required in 

 the humid and the dry farming sections is explainable in the fact that it 

 requires approximately a given quantity of water to produce a bushel 

 of grain. Therefore, if twice as many seed are sown as there is suf- 

 ficient moisture available in the soil to bring to maturity, all of the seed 

 will grow until one-half to two-thirds mature and there it will stop, for 

 all of the moisture is exhausted. If only one-half the seed had been sown 

 we may assume that up to the same date only one-half of the total soil 

 moisture would be consumed, thus leaving the other half with which the 

 crop could come to miaturity. If somewhat too small an amount of seed 

 is sown stool ing will be more vigorous and the root development corre- 

 spondingly more expansive; so that within certain limits the crop will 

 adjust itself to the moisture conditions. 



Causes cf Failure. 



Should a field of grain start off well after seeding, grow luxuriantly 

 for some weeks and then wither and die, do^ not be too hasty in placing 

 the difficulty. There may be a single or a combination of reasons. A 

 sufficient storage reservoir may not have been formed; the moisture 

 stored may not have been properly conserved before seeding; the after 

 cultivation may have been carelessly done or neglected altogether; or 

 possibly far too much seed may have been sown for the quantity of mois- 



